In many instances, the use of present day remote controls in a home environment entails an extensive and often intricate series of “startup” operations that are needed to enable the desired external devices to power on and reach a desired state. This may often entail a routine sequence that includes turning on the remote control itself (in the case of high-end, universal remotes with an onboard display) and/or powering on a home entertainment system, television and a stereo. The repetitive nature of this task may prove a source of frustration to many users, who may prefer a system that can automate these operations to reduce the amount of operations the user has to perform. Many present day universal remotes may allow a user to program “macro” sequences of commonly executed commands. But even in these devices, the user must still power on the universal remote and execute the macro command—a task that may itself require several key presses.
A further problem encountered by users of present day remote controls is that the remote controls may operate in the same manner regardless of the state of the device or devices the remote control is meant to control. For example, a remote control for an audio amplifier may not in any be sense “aware” of the power state of the amplifier. In particular, present day remote controls are not designed to sense the power state of each device being controlled (“controlled device”). This is true of both original equipment manufacturer (OEM) remotes that may be designed by the same vendor that provides the controlled device, and of “universal” remotes that are designed to emulate the IR command signals of several OEM remote controls, allowing for simultaneous control of multiple devices. Moreover, present day remote controls are not designed to explicitly direct a controlled device into an “on” or “off” state, but only to toggle from one state or another, without explicit knowledge of the present state of the controlled device. The consequences of the remote control not having awareness of the state of a controlled device and only being able to toggle between states, can be particularly bothersome when multiple devices need to be placed on at the same time. In one scenario when a user first desires to enable a set of controlled devices, the user may find that some devices are in an “on” state while others are in an “off” state. In another scenario, the user may attempt to turn on multiple controlled devices simultaneously that are all initially in an “off” state. If one or more of the controlled devices do not successfully receive and interpret the “power-on” command signal transmitted by the remote, the device will not respond. This can result in the scenario where some devices successfully power on while others remain in an “off” state. In either scenario, once the state is reached where some controlled devices are in an “off” state and others in an “on” state, once the attempts to remedy the situation by performing the “power-on” command, those devices that were initially on may power off, while those that were off may power on. In this manner, a series of control signals sent from a remote control to multiple controlled devices may toggle the respective devices back and forth between states without ever achieving the goal of powering all controlled devices on simultaneously.
Accordingly, there may be a need for improved techniques to solve these and other problems.